I want to see in the dark

night driving for me at the moment is scary as i can only see about a meter or 2 out in front of me with low beams and no street lights
 
Maybe you need to adjust the angle of the beam.
I had to do that when I put the lift in and again when I put the bar on the front.
Made heaps of difference.
Bulbs wear out too, for the price it'd be worth replacing your headlight bulbs.
 
Ser_Egg said:
night driving for me at the moment is scary as i can only see about a meter or 2 out in front of me with low beams and no street lights
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Sounds as if your headlights badly need adjusting!
 
lol so i ended up getting another pair of housings for free from the same seller i got the full pair from, just the housings that seemed to be wired up for halogens and they look newer as well.
 
Ser_Egg said:
Great right up ABFoz. I will take them into the auto elec when i want all the lights installed and tellem to but H1s bulbs in and 100w ballast in as well. Also ask them to see if the alternator can take it. If it cant, what would be the alternative??
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I would stick with the 100-watt halogens and, of course, use upgraded or beefy wiring. Your auto electrician understands this. He will run all your accessories and check how much charging you have left. As @Ratbag explained, you will be fine with the charge.

The Philips bulb above is an H1 which must, at least, have 2600 lumens but some testers are getting much more than that or are already in the D2R lumens output category.

Regarding HIDs vs halogens, HIDs light sources will always be brighter than halogen ones but light output is not dependent on the light source only. Engineers also consider optics reflectivity, reflector design, lens clarity, etc. That means, if HID bulbs are placed in halogen housings, the efficiency will always be lower because the housing is designed to take halogens. The inefficiency of the light output of HID bulbs in halogen housings can be expressed in terms of flux-in-beam (see below) and glare.

Lighting experts are more concerned over flux-in-beam, which is the actual amount of light that reaches the road, rather than intensity of the light source. Good flux-in-beam is achieved by good design and engineering, regardless of the light source. A well-designed halogen lamp system will always trump a poorly designed LED one. Some 2020 cars with halogen lighting outperform the ones with LEDs even with factory setups of the same model, for example, some Hyundais.

Ser_Egg said:
night driving for me at the moment is scary as i can only see about a meter or 2 out in front of me with low beams and no street lights
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That's unusual. Try upgrading your headlight bulbs first as bulbs lose their intensity over time, may they be halogen, HID or even LED. I believe pre-facelift SGs have H4s and you can easily get something much better off the shelf. I contacted the Narva headquarters in OZ and they told me that their bulbs are manufactured by Philips so that is a good start. Stay away from any blue tint unless they are placed away from the filament to reduce glare.

If you have already done the bulb upgrade and you still do not have good low-beam performance, get your headlights re-aligned. Garages who have a beam-setter can do this. Factory Subarus have around 1.25% drop but you can get it aligned to what is legally allowed in your country/state. Here, we can go up to 1% drop.

If you want, you can upgrade your whole headlight assembly to factory JDM HIDs.
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www.trademe.co.nz

Head Lights | Trade Me Motors

Subaru Forester Hid head lights 02/03 Brought them for our car but unfortunately they are HID and our Forester has standard head lights. Haven't tested as I ...
www.trademe.co.nz www.trademe.co.nz

The wiring can easily be done by your preferred sparky. You may have to change the bulb on this one.

You can also get a set from a dismantler because of the 90-day warranty: SUBARU FORESTER SG5 (RIGHT HEADLIGHT) 2002-2003 LENS # 1703 HID | Trade Me Motors

I am not sure, though, how COVID affects shipment from NZ to OZ.
 
@ABFoz what do you recommend for a lightbar, reverse light LED and some Side lights LED that i can use whilst camping?
 
Ser_Egg said:
@ABFoz what do you recommend for a lightbar, reverse light LED and some Side lights LED that i can use whilst camping?
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Any branded ones are usually OK. Some Baja Designs and Rigid Industries ones have been getting good reviews, especially in terms of durability. Older Stedi light bars made in OZ are also really good. The newer ones, I am not so sure yet as they shifted their production offshore. Of course, they are made/assembled in the USA/OZ but the LED chips are from China, where 99.99% of LED chips are made.

My experience with LEDs comes from when I was mining and we only used Hella LEDs as work lamps and reverse lights. The materials they use are resistant to heat-freeze cycles and they do not cause RF interference. We needed that in the South Island as the days were hot as and snow could fall at night in some seasons. Hellas have the highest lumens-per-watt among all production automotive LEDs in the world and they are relatively cheap compared to Rigid Industries and Baja Designs models. If I would install and LED bar, I would put the Hella LED 350 or 470 because of the available selective yellow cover. Baja Designs also have the yellow filter but they do not remove much of the blue light.
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OZ has a better Hella LED products diversity vs NZ, even though they are made here in the South Island, including the chips. It seems that the OZ website is being integrated into the global one. OZ used to have their own .com.au site. All the Hella models in OZ are now on this site: Home page | HELLA.

Look for what type of light pattern you actually need. The brands' websites should have the light pattern and max output at 1 lux. When you are satisfied with the pattern, you can check the build quality, if samples are available.

Hella LED 350 x2 output:
1599276734300.png

For reference, here's the light output of your Hella 4000 pencil beam with just one 100-watt bulb:
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Hella 4000 spread:
1599276824400.png

EDIT: Narva Explora LED bars are also worth considering. Their angled light source gives them more control of the light output.
 
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really just need the spread for the light bar. The Spotlights will throw most of the light forward. Thats what i want anyway As im only planning using the light bar in offroad or in alone in the dark and low visibility situations. As for the LEDS having Hellas allround would be a mad setup as i feel like matching branded lighting accessories is just neater
 
You'll still need to wire your light bar to your high beam to be legal.
 
Ratbag said:
I bought a genuine OEM switch for mine from a wrecker.
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im going for a custom switch. Will have text and then a toggle switch. Will be backlit with green leds and hopefully i can get a dimmer on all the lights that dont already have one
 
Ser_Egg said:
Surely its not hard to flick a switch
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You’d be surprised! Many with stock lights don’t either.

Worst are those on freeways that seem to think it’s ok to just drive with their high beams on, oncoming traffic and all!

Cheers

Bennie
 
@Ben Up North how do your 9inch spotties affect your cooling? I want to invest in 7inch now because of this issue. Will keep the 9inch spotties for a bigger 4x4 perhaps
 
ABFoz said:
If you want, you can upgrade your whole headlight assembly to factory JDM HIDs.
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You can, but it's fairly involved as that model didn't come with HIDs in Australia. You will also require Automatic Headlight levelers and Headlight washers to maintain ADR/Roadworthy compliance. Switching the bulbs from Halogen to LED in Australia also requires those two things
 
Ser_Egg said:
how do your 9inch spotties affect your cooling?
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When they were close together, about a degree or three. now that I've spread them apart a bit no real difference at all.
 
I had an extra couple of tabs welded onto the bar.
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man how do you even get your spotties to fit. Guess because the Hella housing must be bigger than the lightforces one
 
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